By BRUCE WARRENLos Alamos
In early May, I wrote a letter to the Los Alamos Daily Post notifying the public of a plan to build a bicycle flow trail in one of our canyons (probably Bayo Canyon) and the reasons I thought it is a bad idea. If you didn’t see this letter, it can be read here.
There was no response from the public to this letter, possibly because it was published during the furor over the Rec Bond issue. It is also possible that some readers thought the flow trail was part of the Rec Bond. It was not, and is a separate initiative funded by the County Council. It also has nothing to do with the urban bicycle trails project which has recently been in the news. This is an issue which is important to users of our canyons and deserves public notice.
I attended a Parks and Recreation Board meeting in April where this topic was discussed. The board claimed that several “public” meetings had been held regarding the issue. It turns out that nearly all of these meetings had only been announced by a closed e-mail list (limited to proponents of the flow trail) or on Facebook.
Another meeting of the Board at which the flow trail will be discussed has been announced on Facebook. The announcement reads: “Are you interested in the proposed Mountain Bike Flow Trail project in Los Alamos County? Please attend the regularly scheduled Parks and Recreation Board meeting Thursday, June 8 at 5:30 p.m.,1000 Central Ave, Room 110. Eric Peterson, the County’s Open Space Specialist, will present a project update. He’ll discuss the pros and cons of the proposed corridor. We’re looking for your feedback!”
As far as I can tell, the only place this was announced was as a post on Facebook group pages with limited membership. Eric should know that if a meeting is truly to be called “public” it should be publicized with separate announcements in the LA Daily Post (the County’s publication of record) and the LA Monitor.
If you care about our canyons, you should attend this meeting.
